Towel holder



Nov. 27, 1923. 1,475,898

. F. J. TEFFT TOWEL HOLDER Filed July 29 1922 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 FLZoyd J. Tefft L I V Moon,

Nov. 27, 1923; 1,475,898

. F. J. TEFFT TOWEL HOLDER Filed July 29, 1922 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 V wuwvtw a]; Tefft Patented Nov. 27, 1923.

UNITED STATES teases FLOYD J. TEFFT, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

TOWEL HOLDER.

Application filed July 29, 1922. Serial No. 578,456.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, FLOYD J. Tnrr'r, a citizen oi the United States, residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and use- :tul Improvements in Towel. Holders; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, and to the letters and figures of reference marked thereon, which form a part of this specification.

This invention relates to towel holders and has for an object to provide a device of improved type upon which a plurality of towels or the like are suspended to be withdrawn one at a time for wiping purposes and subsequently released and by their own weight dropped into a receptacle.

A further object of the invention is to provide a curved guide extending from the place of storage of clean towels to the receptacle for soiled towels, with improved means "for separating the curved guide into sections to facilitate the replacing oi clean towels and the removal of soiled towels.

A further object of the invention is to provide novel structure and details for carrying out the general objects of the invention, as hereinbefore stated.

With these and other objects in view the invention comprises certain novel parts, ele ments, units, combinations, constructions, inter-actions and functions, as disclosed in the drawings, to ether with mechanical equivalents thereoi as will be hereinafter more tullydescribed and claimed.

In the drawings: b

Figure 1 is a view of the improved towel I holder in front elevation in position and condition .for operation;

Figure 2 is a view of the towel holder in side elevation as indicated by arrow 2 at Figure 1;

Figure 3 is a view of the towel holder in side elevation with the parts opened in position to replenish the stock of clean towels;

Figure 1 is a vertical sectional view showing the means for exerting tension upon the clean towels in their storage position;

Figure 5 is a detail enlarged longitudinal sectional view of the towel tensioning mechanism;

bular in construction.

stepped in the receptacle 11 by means of a Figure is a transverse sectional view taken on line 66 of Figure 5; Figure 7 IS a view of the towel tensioning device in end elevation, as indicated by arrow 7 at Figure 5;

Figure 8 is a view in side elevation of the bayonet joint connection for the sections of the curved towel guide;

Figure 9 is a detail view in side elevation of the manner of st pping the guide in the soiled towel receptacle.

Like characters of reference indicate corresponding parts throughout the several views.

llhe improved towel holder which forms the subject matter of this application comprises a beam or upright 10 which may, as occasion requires, be secured to the wall of a room, a post, or other convenient article or body, but provides the device as a selfsupporting and self-sustaining device when found desirable. As base for maintaining the upright in vertical position and also as a receptacle a box 11 is rigidly secured thereto.

Extending from adjacent the top of the 11 ri ht 10 and into the receptacle ll is a curved towel guide comprising the sections 12 and 13 both of which may and the latter of which preferably will be hollow or tu- The section 12 is flanged base 14 rigidly secured to the bottom of the rece )tacle and provided with l.

bayonet joint 15, the section 12 of the guide rod being provided with a pin 16 to co-act with said bayonet slot so that by turning the section 12 through an arc, here shown as approximately one-quarter of a revolution from the position shown at Figures 1, 2 and 9, the section 1 of the rod may be elevated out of its engagement with the base 14 to release the soiled towels contained in the receptacle andindicated at 17 in Figure 2. 1

At the junction of the sections 12 and 13 a bayonet joint connection is also provided comprising a bayonet slot 18 (see Fig. 8) formed preferably in the tubular section and the section 12 provided with a pin 19 positioned and proportionedto co-act with said bayonet slot 18. To make the bayonet slot 18 available as a connection, it is necessary to rotate the section 13 and this is provided by journaling this section in the upslot 18 has been rotated to release its engagement with the pin 19 so that the section 12 of the curved guide may be readily removed therefrom, as indicated at Figure 3, and by the partial revolution hereinbefore referred to released from the support in the receptacle 11. By this separation of parts the tubular member 13 is available for the implacement thereon of an additional supply of towels, the clean towels being indicated at 17.

To support the towels 17 in position for convenient access and manipulation by the user, a towel-supporting frame 23 is rigidly secured to the upright 10 in any approved manner, as by forming said frame as sul stantially a square with ears 24 at its upper corner spaced upon opposite sides of the upright and employing a brace or bracket 25 for maintaining said support at an angle to and the lower part spaced from said upright, as shown more particularly at Figure 2. For properly positioning the towels and preventing lateral movement the corners of the support 23 are preferably turned up as at 26.

Also to facilitate the manipulation of the towels the lower corners of the towels will preferably be turned upwardly, as indicated at 27 so that the corner of the outermost towel will be available for engagement by the user and to maintain such turned-up corners in such position the lower corner of the support 23 is also turned up as a bracket or support at 28.

It is necessary or desirable to so maintain the stock of clean towels that it is difficult or impractical to remove more than one towel at a time, for which purpose a keeper is provided comprising spaced or diverging arms 29 having return bends 30 (see Fig. 1) with the ends turned inwardly at 31 forming a resilient or yielding keeper through the yielding and diverging members of which a single towel may be conveniently withdrawn by grasping the corner, as indicated at Figure 2.

To compensate for a greater or lesser number of towels in storage the keeper 29 is mounted to slide by attaching to a plate 32 slidable in a dove-tailed guide 33 hinged to the upright 10 at 34. This hinging at approved mechanical manner, preferably,

however, by turning a secti0n40 at right angles to the plate 32 and clamping the keeper between such right angular Portion and a plate 41 by means of rivets 42 or other approved fastening means.

The lever 21 hereinbefore referred to as employed for rotating the section 13 of the towel guide is employed also for locking the several parts in closed or operative position and for maintaining them in open position during the replenishment of the towel sup ply. For locking the lever 21 is provided with a slot or cut-out portion 43 which closes over and upon the top of the dovetailed guide 33, an offset 44 being provided rigidly secured to the upright 10 to serve not only as a support to maintain this dovetailed guide 33 is horizontal position but to co-act with the lever 21 to lock this dove tailed guide in its operativeposition as shown at Figures 1 and 2. The lever 21 is maintained in this closed position by means of a lock 45 inserted through the right angularly turned end 46 "of the lever and through a hinged member 47, such locked position be.- ing shown at Figures 1 and 2 and the open position shown at Figures 3 and 4. In Figure 3 the lever 21 is shown as bein returned substantially to normal or locked position after the parts have been opened and the section 12 of the guide-rod released, whereby the keeper 29 is maintained elevated above the section 13, as shownat said Figure 3,.

making it more convenient for the replenishment of the stock of towels. vAs the lever 21 will be preferablycomposed of sheet mental or its equivalent, it will yield to accommodate itself to this requirement, as shown in said Figure.

In operation, with the parts assembled as shown at Figures 1 and 2 the user will withdraw from the stock of towels one towel ata time, said towel being drawn through between the yielding members of the keeper and while positioned at any convenient height along the curved guide will be employed for wiping purposes and after having performed its function will be released,

along the curved guide convenient for users standing, although the proportions of the device are wholly immaterial to the present invention.

This operation will be repeated until the towel supply has been exhausted or until such time as the person in charge shall see fit to replenish the stock and remove the soiled towels. At this occurrence, the lock will be released and removed, the lever 21 turned from its full-line position, as shown at Figure 1, to dotted line position turning therewith the section 13 of the towel guide one-quarter of a revolution or some predetermined arc. This will serve to move the bayonet slot 18 into such position that the section 12 of the guide-rod may be re leased from the section 13, as indicated at Figure 3. The quarter or other arcuate revolution of the section 12 relative to the base 14: will now release this section 12 from its stepped relation to the receptacle 11 and the same may be bodily removed. The removal of this section 12 allows the soiled towels 17 to remain in the receptacle 11, from which position they may be removed manually. The clean towels are now applied by threading the section 13 through registering openings in the corners or other positions of the towels, as indicated at Figures 1, 2 and 3, until such number of towels have been added as circumstances may make desirable. The dove-tailed guide 33 carrying the keeper is now returned from the position shown at Figure 3 to the position shown at Figure 2, the lever 21 returned to its looking position, as shown at Figure 1, and the lock 45 applied, the whole process of removing and replenishing being thereby accomplished.

What I claim is:

1. A towel holder comprising a support embodying an upright, a towel rod having its upper end connected with the upright adjacent its upper end and the lower end removably seated in relation to the lower end of said upright, said rod embodying sections separable by the rotation of one of said sections, a sliding towel holder mounted substantially in parallelism with the rotatable section of said towel rod, a handle carried by said rotatable section for rotating said section into connecting and disconnecting position respectively, and means carried by said handle for locking said holder-holding mechanism in operative position.

2. A towel holder comprising a vertical upright, a receptacle adjacent the lower end of the upright, a towel guiding rod having its lower end removably seated in said receptacle, and curved to connect with a rotatable substantially horizontal section at its upper end, said horizontal section being rotatably connected with said upright, a joint effecting the connectinganddisconnecting of said sections by the rotation of said rotatable section, a towel holder, a guide for said towel holder mounted above and in substantial parallelism with said rotatable section, a handle mounted upon said rotatable section and facilitating the manual rotation thereby, said handle serving to engage the guide of said towel holder in operative and inoperative positions and means to lock said handle to maintain said sections in connected relation and said guide in operative position.

In testimony whereof I hereunto aiiix my signature.

FLOYD J. TEFFT. 

